Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Hard Luck and Soft Rolls

Some people just have a knack for certain things.

Me, my knack is losing stuff. Important stuff. Although I must bow to Karen, she of the misplaced $4,900 tax return. We're in the same league.

Once I threw away my keys. Yep. I mean, I think that's what happened to them. Obviously, I had them when I drove myself to work that morning, but by 5 they'd vanished. Gone. Out with the dumpster and the grocery bag which I must have tossed them in after I made my contribution to the United Way Bake Sale on the third floor. (That's what I get for bringing storebought goodies to a bake sale.)

The big deal is that the car key was electronic ... the special theft-deterrant kind of key that has a computer chip embedded into it. Oh, and the remote keyless entry happened to be on the same keyring. My husband was so mad, we never did replace that remote. Three years, one new electronic key and a $175 key later, we still have to trade the "good" set of keys (the one with the remaining remote) whenever one of us drives that car.

I lost my cash card once. Well, make that twice. On Friday I went to run an errand for Canon and when I pulled out my purse, no card. Oops. Of course I didn't have any cash, either. I barely ever carry cash anymore. That card is just too damn convenient.

So it was gone. First I drove across town to Bennigan's, sure I had left it there at lunch yesterday. Nope. I searched my purse about six times. Drove back to work, called the bank. No strange activity, so I knew it hadn't been stolen. Nobody steals a cash card and waits to use it. At least I hope not, because if they do, they've got bigger problems than petty theft. Maybe, I thought, it was just sitting on my kitchen table. I thought maybe I remembered cleaning out my reciepts the night before. Yeah, maybe. So I suffered through the rest of the afternoon thinking of little else.

I get home at 5:30, no card. Not on the kitchen table, not on the kitchen counter, not anywhere. I called my friend who drove us to lunch yesterday and made her pull off the highway on her way to a wedding and search her car. And then it occurs to me: my car. Sure enough, there on the floor behind the driver's seat sat the ATM card. I had accidentally dumped my purse over earlier that morning when my co-worker and I stopped at a bakery to pick up carmel rolls for a pot-luck.

So, yeah, a happy ending. The best part was that I didn't have to tell my husband about it until it was all over. Oh, and I think the universe has a lesson for me: Knock it off with the store-bought baked goods at work functions. They always lead to trouble.